Django CRM Upgrades & Maintenance

Technology Stack

Django
JavaScript
Vue.js
MySQL

The Client

This US-based company specializes in auto parts distribution services. The company’s distribution network has over 4000 franchise stores across the USA. Each franchise store sells top-quality auto parts and accessories. The company’s super admin maintains an internal CRM system to manage all these stores’ operational activities and sales reports. Each store admin can also use the same dashboard to manage their individual store’s activities.

The Challenge

Although this CRM was up and live, the parent company needed help because the existing CRM had several functional issues. For example, the CRM dashboard didn’t have a separate module that could list all the franchise admin names in one place. So, bringing together all franchise names in a single location was necessary.

Moreover, each franchise admin faced problems resetting new passwords as reset emails wouldn’t get generated. In addition, poor-quality code led to inaccurate sales reports. The dashboard didn’t even have date range filters to extract sales reports for specific dates.

Besides, when users would open the dashboard in Incognito mode and try to extract reports for stores in locations like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, reports wouldn’t get displayed, and the dashboard would only show null values or blank pages.

In addition, when a user typed an incorrect URL, the dashboard would merely show a 404 error message and never redirect the user to the main menu, which caused user frustration.

It was on Capital Numbers to fix these crucial elements. The client asked us to take care of these issues so that the dashboard functions well and leads to an improved user experience.

The Solution

So, we aligned our experienced backend and frontend developers directly with the client’s team to take care of the job.

Our developers started by examining this Django-powered dashboard. We saw that there were multiple issues related to the existing code. Some areas had broken code. Others had inconsistencies. So, we began implementing a minimum set of logic-based rules. We gradually added more based on our findings.

We could identify code failures and refactor them confidently because of our past working knowledge of Django. We know Django’s libraries and code layouts well enough. So, it helped us modify the existing code and even add Javascript files to this Django project faster.

Our modifications resolved several issues. For instance, we added date range filters for generating date-wise reports. We fixed the code to display reports in regular and Incognito tabs. We found and fixed all 404 errors and added the correct URL redirect to take users to the main menu. We added a new interface to centralize all franchise admin names and IDs. And we modified a pre-built Django form using which store admins can reset new passwords without waiting for a reset email to land in their inboxes.

We also created several REST APIs to render user requests at scale on the VueJS frontend. VueJS, a lightweight and configurable framework, reflected all the changes well. We used MySQL as the database solution to ensure the system’s high efficiency even when data flow increases.

Finally, we tested every modification in our staging environment before adding them to the Git repository provided by the client.

Results

Although Capital Numbers fine-tuned just a few areas of the dashboard, each fix was crucial and contributed immensely to the client’s overall business growth. Had it not been for our efforts, the client would have faced severe issues moving ahead with a faulty CRM.

The outcomes of our efforts are as below:

A Robust Django CRM with No Error Message

Our optimization work has helped the CRM load all sales activities and metrics without showing any error message or blank page.

Powerful User Authentications

Our code changes made the default super-admin and sub-admin roles stronger and more secure.

Date Range Filtration

Users can choose ‘start date’ and ‘end date’ to filter sales reports for a specific timeline.

Fully-loading Reports

Users can open reports in regular and private tabs without coming across the ‘File not found’ pages.

Proper Redirects

Our custom health check pages redirect users to the main menu instead of showing 404 errors.

New Module

Since we installed a separate module to list all the franchise IDs, the client can find everything in one place for quick referrals.

Easy Password Resets

Each store admin can also regenerate passwords directly within the dashboard and save time.

Upgraded Interface

Because we knew Django’s reusable components well, we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel for most of these modifications. Our work helped the client get the following:

Better visibility into franchise activities
Unified view of all franchise names
Filtered reports

Cost-effective Maintenance

Impressed with our Django knowledge, the client engaged us for the system’s ongoing maintenance, which we handle through Agile workflows to keep costs low.